Rogue Heroes outfit dethrones BBC Studios as UK sales houses bring in £1.85bn

Banijay Rights has topped Broadcast’s 2024 Distributors Survey for the very first time.

The company, led by chief executive Cathy Payne, reported distribution turnovers of £389.1m in 2023-24, up 8.4% from last year’s £359m.

The Rogue Heroes, MasterChef and Survivor sales house took top spot from BBC Studios, having previously held second place for three successive years from 2021.

BBC Studios endured a particularly challenging 23/24 as its distribution revenues dropped steeply by £140m (28%) to £361.5m, after 2023’s high watermark of £501m.

Earlier this year, the production/distribution giant revealed a 14% drop in its overall revenues, from £2.1bn to £1.8bn.

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BBCS ranked third in the survey, behind ITV Studios which moved up from third to second, with distribution turnover of £368m, up 7.6%

The rest of the top five saw no change in positions for Fremantle, which grew 3% to reach £236.4m, and All3Media International which dipped 12% to record £178m.

The major players were the key factors in UK-based companies delivering total distributor revenues of £1.85bn, down 4.6% from £1.94bn in 2023. The companies cited inflating production costs, the fallout from the 2023 US creative strikes and restricted budgets and demand from buyers as factors in the decline.

This year’s survey saw the gap widen between the top seven distributors – with Fifth Season (£135.1m) and Cineflix Rights (£70.4m) rounding out this list – and the other distributors in the survey. The top seven account for 94% of UK distribution revenues up from 91% in 2023.

Night Train Media-backed BossaNova Media saw the biggest growth, increasing its revenues by 54.7% to hit £11.6m.

As with last year’s warnings of contraction, distributors emphasised that ongoing concerns such as spiralling deficits and the bottoming out of the UK secondary sales market is putting further strain on maintaining the strength of their businesses, though an overwhelming eight in 10 are projecting a better year in 2025.